up to them to keep radio equipment going despite high humidity, and planes in top condition to meet the rigorous demands of mountain flying. Typical of the young men doing this type of work is John Lawless, who is now setting up a missionary communications network i n t h e Philippines. He is a navy veteran who took three years of specialized Bible and radio training at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. This is one of the oldest and largest Bible in stitutes and has trained approximate
which it is possible for a pilot to talk by phone with a person on the ground while circling overhead. On graduation these men serve with such groups as Wycliffe Bible Translators and the Missionary Avia tion Fellowship, which operates a jungle air-taxi service for missions in Central and South America, Africa and Asia. Daily they make long flights over unbroken jungle and treacherous mountains. Such hazards make cool nerve, unfailing resource fulness and practically infallible m
a life or avert tragic mistakes. Just such a tragedy was averted the day Jim Reed, radio man at Tour- navista, Peru, received an urgent call from a jungle missionary at Caco say ing that her husband was very sick. He had just returned from a jungle trek, violently ill with fever and severe chills. A doctor in Lima, hurriedly consulted by radio, diag nosed it as typhoid and exclaimed, “ Get him out of there!” “ Providentially,” said Reed, “ a mis sion plane was approaching Caco at that moment. I gave him a call, ex plained the situation, and had the stricken missionary under a doctor’s care within an hour.” A three-day trip by river was avoided and a life was saved. In less than a week the missionary, who might not have lived another 24 hours, was up and around! In the Rolivian headwaters of the Amazon, mission work is greatly hampered by rivers and dense jungle. Yet here again radio and plane prove to be just the thing to break down the barriers. A year ago, two mem bers of the Wycliffe Bible Transla tors, a group which specializes in transldting the Bible into written lan guages, set out to find a “ lost tribe” in their area. Finding no trace of it in a search of the rivers by launch, they called headquarters by radio for a plane to help. After several hours in the air, the men spotted something which looked like a village. The plane set down to investigate, and a lost tribe was found. Now a Wycliffe missionary family is located with them, translating the Bible into their language. Standing behind this march of progress is a small group of highly skilled pilots and radio technicians. They are a dedicated lot who live in the most primitive conditions and on skimpy missionary allowances. It is
Nate Saint, a former Missionary Aviation Fellowship pilot in Ecuador, checks radio equipment at his jungle base in Shell Mera. He was one of five missionaries who were killed by Auca Indians in 1956. — (MAF Photo)
ly one-tenth of all American Protes tant missionaries. In its missionary technical course, which has been offered since World War II, the stu dents learn radio from ground up by actually building radio equipment they will use on the field. Many of the missionary pilots have also been trained at Moody. After three years of training there, they are fully qualified in cross-country, night, instrument and seaplane fly ing. They also get experience in such techniques as the bucket drop in
judgment a necessity. Just one small mistake could easily be fatal. So highly regarded is this work that re cently Queen Julianna of the Nether lands cited the MAF for its work in Dutch New Guinea. And so around the world the work of missionaries, “ ambassadors for Christ,” is speeded by a small corps of technical specialists. By using the modem tools of radio and aviation they overcome the barriers of time a n d distance while conquering hitherto impossible obstacles.
today’s tools overcome obstacles
A t the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, which operates the w orlds only school for missionary bush, pilots, young men are trained in all phases of aircraft maintenance and mechanics. H ere students install a new ly overhauled air craft engine. — (Moody Photo)
NOVEMBER, 1960
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